172. Ixodes ovatus Neumann, 1899 .

An Oriental and Palearctic species whose adult and immature stages have

been found on Carnivora: Canidae, Felidae and Ursidae, Lagomorpha: Leporidae and Ochotonidae, and Rodentia: Muridae; adults alone have been collected from Mammalia (several orders), and Galliformes: Phasianidae; immature stages alone have been recovered from Carnivora: Mustelidae, Rodentia: Cricetidae, Scandentia: Tupaiidae, Soricomorpha: Soricidae and Talpidae, and Passeriformes: Emberizidae . Ixodes ovatus is a frequent parasite of humans.

M: Nuttall (1916), under the name Ixodes japonensis, a synonym of Ixodes ovatus; see note below

F: Neumann (1899)

N: Asanuma and Sekikawa (1952), under the provisional name Ixodes sp. 52, as explained in Yamaguti et al. (1971)

L: Asanuma and Sekikawa (1952), under the provisional name Ixodes sp. 6, as explained in Yamaguti et al. (1971) Redescriptions

M: Yamaguti et al. (1971), Hoogstraal et al. (1973a), Yamaguti and Kitaoka (1980), Yamaguti (1981), Teng and Jiang (1991), Yamauchi and Takada (2015)

F: Neumann (1911a), Morel (1963b), Yamaguti et al. (1971), Hoogstraal et al. (1973a), Yamaguti and Kitaoka (1980), Yamaguti (1981), Teng and Jiang (1991), Yamauchi and Takada (2015)

N: Yamaguti et al. (1971), Hoogstraal et al. (1973a), Teng and Jiang (1991), Fujita and Takada (2007)

L: Yamaguti et al. (1971), Hoogstraal et al. (1973a), Teng and Jiang (1991), Fujita and Takada (2007)

Note: according to Neumann (1911a), Morel (1963b) and others, the male described in Neumann (1899) as Ixodes ovatus does not represent this species. Hoogstraal et al. (1973a) state that two or three species may be included under the name Ixodes ovatus, a hypothesis also supported by Li et al. (2018) after molecular analyses of different populations of this tick. The latter authors listed as found in the USA (Nearctic Region) a specimen of Ixodes ovatus used to obtain a 16S gene sequence, but that specimen was actually collected in the Palearctic Region. See also Ixodes succineus (fossil) for its relationship to Ixodes ovatus .